EU warns Sri Lanka rights abuses threaten trade concessions

[AFP]

The European Union threatened on Tuesday to withhold trade concessions from Sri Lanka due to the island’s worsening human rights record. Colombo has come under fire for its rights record, with Human Rights Watch saying recently at least 1,500 people “disappeared” between 2006 and 2007 — mostly ethnic Tamils living in the island’s restive north and east. The New York-based rights group said Sri Lanka was one of the world’s worst perpetrators of “disappearances” and abductions and described the situation as a “national crisis”.